Does Truth Serum Really Exist?

1 Answer

Truth serum, also known as sodium thiopental or sodium pentothal, is a drug used to obtain information during an investigation from subjects who are unwilling to answer or somehow unable to remember the facts first-hand. There are several drugs that can be used as truth serum, including sodium thiopental (an anesthetic), grain alcohol (ethanol), scopolamine (a highly toxic depressant) and barbiturates. The same drugs have many other applications: they are used in psychiatry to treat phobias, as a general anesthesia, and even to produce medically-induced comas. The truth serum has often been portrayed in fiction and films as a magical solution. Even the character Barty Crouch in the Harry Potter books is subjected to the use of truth serum and ends up confessing to a list of offenses. Many films, especially those that came out a couple of decades ago, when the use of the truth serum was at its peak of popularity, portrayed the serum as 100 percent effective. TV series 24, docudrama Shel